Only you.

Ruan Sixian stared at these words for a long time, feeling a burning sensation expanding in her heart, making her chest feel tight.

This man could be so straightforward without even blinking an eye.

Of course, Ruan Sixian didn’t know if he felt anything when typing those words.

She stood there for a while. The crew had already gone far, leaving her alone in the hall.

Her fingers tapped lightly on the screen for a moment before Ruan Sixian typed a few words.

[Ruan Sixian]: Have you had dinner yet?

The moment she sent it, Ruan Sixian felt a little nervous.

She hadn’t seen or spoken to Fu Mingyu for two days, and she felt there was a vague sense of “cold war” between them.

But now she was actively seeking reconciliation, right?

Ruan Sixian waited for half a minute, then sent another message.

[Ruan Sixian]: Director Fu?

Before Fu Mingyu responded, she received a text from Dong Xian: Ruan Ruan, answer the phone, it’s urgent.

Less than a minute after receiving the text, Dong Xian called.

Seeing that the caller wasn’t Fu Mingyu, Ruan Sixian felt a slight disappointment. When she answered the phone, her tone was somewhat resigned.

“What is it?”

Dong Xian: “Your aunt is sick, just had surgery. Can you come to see her?”

Ruan Sixian checked the time. “Where?”

“City Third Hospital.”

Ruan Sixian’s aunt was Dong Xian’s elder sister, named Dong Jing.

She was originally a director of elementary school admissions. After Dong Xian remarried, she resigned from her position at the elementary school and went to work in marketing for the Zheng family’s hotel group.

Dong Jing had always done well in the admissions office, but it was still a small pond. When she moved to a larger platform, she truly displayed her capabilities and thrived.

By the time Ruan Sixian arrived at City Third Hospital, it was already seven in the evening. Night came early in autumn, and the hospital’s bustle seemed out of place in the quiet night.

Following the directions, Ruan Sixian arrived at the cardiac surgery inpatient department, where Dong Xian was waiting outside the ward.

It had been several years since they had seen each other. When Dong Xian saw Ruan Sixian walking over in her uniform, her eyes grew a bit moist.

Her steps were somewhat unsteady as she walked toward her.

“Ruan Ruan…”

She wanted to say more but was interrupted by Ruan Sixian’s direct question.

“How is Aunt doing?”

Dong Xian’s words caught in her throat. She pointed to the ward.

“She’s not awake yet.”

“Mm.”

Ruan Sixian walked past her into the ward and saw Dong Jing lying on the hospital bed with an IV in the back of her hand. A caretaker was busy with various tasks nearby.

Perhaps due to some kind of spiritual connection, Dong Jing woke up just as Ruan Sixian approached the bedside.

She opened her eyes groggily and looked a bit confused when she saw Ruan Sixian.

“Aunt.” Ruan Sixian leaned closer. “Are you feeling better?”

Dong Jing had been admitted to the hospital in the early morning due to cardiac tamponade and was immediately scheduled for surgery. She had already woken up once in the morning, and now her energy had recovered a little.

“Ruan Ruan is here?”

She smiled and looked at Ruan Sixian’s uniform, saying, “Your mother told me you’re a pilot now, and it’s true.”

When Ruan Sixian was young, she often visited Dong Jing’s home. At that time, Dong Jing wasn’t married and didn’t have children, so she treated Ruan Sixian like her own daughter.

Later, when Dong Xian divorced, Ruan Sixian lived alone with her father, and her contact with Dong Jing faded.

After all, she didn’t want to visit, and Dong Jing couldn’t always come to her house either.

Eventually, Dong Jing went to work in marketing for the Zheng Group and spent most of her time abroad, so the two hardly ever met.

“How did you end up in the hospital so suddenly?” Ruan Sixian asked.

“What’s good about it?” Dong Jing waved her hand, gesturing for Ruan Sixian to come closer. “All these years of working day and night on business trips, my body gave out long ago. You never said you’d find time to visit your aunt.”

While Ruan Sixian was chatting with Dong Jing, Dong Xian stood behind them, not speaking, just silently watching the two.

After about ten minutes, Ruan Sixian sensed that Dong Jing was struggling to speak and prepared to leave.

Dong Jing noticed her intention and quickly grabbed her hand. “Ruan Ruan, let your aunt tell you something else.”

“Hmm?”

Dong Jing glanced at her sister standing behind them and sighed, “You know, when your father and mother divorced, you didn’t want to go with your mother. Later, when your father passed away, your mother wanted you to live with her, but you refused again. Your aunt knows that your parents’ divorce has a psychological impact on children, but so many years have passed, and you’ve grown up. You should be able to understand your mother’s choice back then. Sometimes marriage isn’t something you can control. Once feelings are gone, they’re gone, and continuing would just be mutual torture. But parents always love their children. Don’t be so stubborn. You only have one mother—where would you find another one?”

As Dong Jing spoke, Ruan Sixian looked back at Dong Xian. She was frowning, her eyes red. When their eyes met, Dong Xian’s nose reddened, and her eyes immediately became moist.

Ruan Sixian turned back and continued listening to Dong Jing.

She was essentially urging Ruan Sixian to stop holding a grudge against Dong Xian. Even if she wanted to hold a grudge, after so many years, it was enough. These days, there were so many divorced families, but she’d never seen anyone like Ruan Sixian who remained so completely estranged from her mother.

Ruan Sixian responded with a series of agreements. No matter what her aunt said, she just said “Okay.”

Only when Dong Jing grew tired again, her eyes barely staying open, did Ruan Sixian leave.

“Aunt, rest well. I’ll come visit you another day.”

By the time she said this, Dong Jing was already asleep and didn’t respond. Ruan Sixian gathered her things and went out, with Dong Xian following.

“Ruan Ruan.” At the ward door, Dong Xian called out to her. “Let me take you home.”

“No need, I’ll get a taxi myself.” Ruan Sixian turned to face her. “Also, don’t wait outside my home for me anymore. It’s annoying.”

Hearing the word “annoying,” Dong Xian realized that all those agreeable responses Ruan Sixian had given were just to appease her aunt.

Her softened expression gradually crumbled.

Ruan Sixian took a card from her bag and pushed it into Dong Xian’s hand.

“This is the money you’ve sent me over the years. I haven’t touched a cent of it. Keep it for yourself.”

Dong Xian didn’t take it, and the card fell to the ground with no one picking it up.

She stared at the old card on the floor, and all the confusion and resignation that had been suppressed for over ten years exploded at this moment.

When they divorced, she had considered the impact on her child. But the end of a marriage wasn’t just one person’s fault. At that time, Ruan Sixian was young and didn’t understand, so she could be patient. But now Ruan Sixian was in her twenties and still acting this way—she truly couldn’t understand it.

“Ruan Ruan, why can’t you accept the fact that your father and I divorced? I admit, to spare your feelings, your father and I never argued or showed any tension in front of you. When we suddenly talked about divorce, you might not have been able to accept it. But couldn’t you see the changes between us during that time?”

Ruan Sixian pressed her tongue against her cheek but didn’t speak.

Of course, she didn’t think divorce was necessarily wrong, but how could Dong Xian be so self-righteous, assuming she didn’t know anything?

They divorced when Ruan Sixian was fourteen, in her third year of junior high.

Third-year students had one more class in the afternoon than first and second years, getting out at six o’clock every day. It took twenty minutes to get home from school, but there was a shortcut that only took ten minutes, though it required climbing over a low wall.

Ruan Sixian was mischievous back then. Another girl who walked with her didn’t want to climb the wall, so she took the shortcut alone every day.

Her house was in an old alley. The north side faced a passage toward the main road, and the south side was a small path that usually had few people. After climbing over the low wall and passing through an abandoned construction site, one would reach this small path.

She couldn’t remember exactly which day it was, but Ruan Sixian had jumped down from the low wall with her backpack and, just as she passed the construction site, saw her mother getting out of a Mercedes.

She hid behind an abandoned panel house and watched from a distance until Dong Xian turned into the small path before coming out.

For a long period after that, Ruan Sixian occasionally saw Mercedes several times.

Sometimes they would stop there for a long time, the two of them in the car talking about who knows what.

Sometimes the man would get out, open the trunk, and give Dong Xian some things.

Ruan Sixian never saw the man’s face clearly, only that he seemed somewhat fat and old.

There was another time when she saw the man give Dong Xian a small box. Dong Xian took it, put it in her bag, and turned to go home.

Ruan Sixian arrived home shortly after and went through her bag while Dong Xian was cooking, discovering it was a necklace.

Ruan Sixian’s family was poor; she had never seen much jewelry. But based on her guess, this item was probably quite valuable.

So Dong Xian didn’t know that divorce wasn’t Ruan Sixian’s hang-up—this was.

A few months later, Dong Xian proposed divorce to Ruan Sixian’s father.

The divorce tug-of-war lasted for several months, during which Dong Xian moved out. Ruan Sixian didn’t know where she lived, perhaps at that man’s house.

Later, Ruan Sixian’s father finally agreed to the divorce and asked Ruan Sixian whom she wanted to live with.

Without thinking, Ruan Sixian immediately said she would live with her father.

Then the two sat face to face for a long time without speaking.

Finally, Dong Xian stood up and said, “Fine.”

Ruan Sixian couldn’t describe what she felt at that moment. She thought Dong Xian would talk to her a lot, would persuade her to live with her, but she just said “Fine.”

Several days passed. All of Dong Xian’s belongings had been removed from the house when Ruan Sixian belatedly realized.

Ah, I was abandoned after all.

Ruan Sixian was lost in thought for a long time before being brought back by one of Dong Xian’s sentences.

“Ruan Ruan, my divorce from your father wasn’t just my fault. It’s not fair for you to treat me this way.”

“My father may have been poor and not capable, but at least he was devoted to you.”

Ruan Sixian left with just this sentence and turned to leave.

Dong Xian couldn’t react for a while, not understanding what Ruan Sixian meant by that sentence. How did the topic suddenly turn to “devotion”?

By the time she came to her senses, Ruan Sixian had already disappeared into the elevator.

When she walked out of the inpatient department, it was completely dark.

Ruan Sixian stood by the roadside waiting for a taxi, staring absent-mindedly at the traffic flow, not noticing a black sedan slowly stopping in front of her.

Zheng You’an rolled down the window, lifted her sunglasses, and after confirming it was Ruan Sixian, asked, “What are you doing here?”

Ruan Sixian came back to herself and glanced at her. Zheng You’an asked again, “Are you sick?”

“No,” Ruan Sixian said. “I came to see a relative.”

“Oh, I’m also here to see a relative.” Zheng You’an asked, “How are things on your end? Everything okay?”

Ruan Sixian looked at Zheng You’an, not knowing what to say.

She thought that if she hadn’t seen that car back then, or if Dong Xian had been more insistent, she might have gone with Dong Xian. Now, she and Zheng You’an might have been good friends.

“Everything’s fine. You should go in,” Ruan Sixian said. “There’s a car coming behind you.”

After Zheng You’an left, Ruan Sixian hailed a taxi. The driver asked where she wanted to go, and after thinking for a moment, she gave the address of Bian Xuan’s bar.

When she arrived, she found it was the weekend and the place was particularly crowded. Bian Xuan was so busy her feet barely touched the ground.

Ruan Sixian sat for a while and then left.

During this time, her phone kept ringing. Annoyed, she silenced it and thought about changing her phone number sometime.

It wasn’t yet ten o’clock when she reached Mingchen Apartments. She walked slowly and even encountered an old lady walking her dog.

The Chihuahua was quite fierce, barking loudly at Ruan Sixian, frightening her into retreating several steps.

Seeing Ruan Sixian’s reddened eyes, the old lady immediately picked up the dog and apologized, “Oh, young lady, I’m sorry. My dog is just a bit fierce, but it doesn’t bite. Don’t be afraid.”

Ruan Sixian didn’t respond and ran into the elevator.

In the ten-plus seconds it took the elevator to rise, Ruan Sixian didn’t have time to compose herself before arriving.

She pulled up her flight suitcase and walked toward her home while rubbing her eyes.

The voice-activated lights turned on. She looked up and saw Fu Mingyu standing at her door.

“Where have you been?”

“Why are you here?”

They spoke simultaneously. After Fu Mingyu finished speaking, he noticed something was off about Ruan Sixian’s expression.

He slowly approached, leaned down close to Ruan Sixian’s face, and sniffed. “Have you been drinking again?”

This time Ruan Sixian didn’t deny it. She gave a soft affirmative response and then walked past Fu Mingyu to open the door.

She entered the living room and put down her flight suitcase. Fu Mingyu followed behind her, standing by the television.

“I saw your message after I finished work, but you didn’t answer when I called.”

“Oh, I wasn’t checking my phone. Sorry about that.”

Ruan Sixian turned around and looked at Fu Mingyu, suddenly feeling an itch in her throat.

She had only turned on the light at the entrance, which cast flickering shadows on Fu Mingyu as it reached the living room, making him seem almost unreal.

But even so, just having this person standing there somehow made Ruan Sixian feel like she wanted a hug.

Ruan Sixian touched her lower abdomen.

Perhaps it was because she was in her ovulation period, with excessive oxytocin secretion causing this feeling.

Drinking more water to speed up metabolism should help.

She looked at Fu Mingyu and said, “Director Fu, I’d like some water.”

Fu Mingyu looked into her eyes, trying to discern something from them.

After a few seconds, he gave up, turned around, and went to the kitchen to pour a glass of hot water.

When he came out, Ruan Sixian had already taken off her shoes and was sitting on the sofa, curled up with her arms around her knees.

Fu Mingyu handed her the glass.

Ruan Sixian took it and drank it all in one go, nearly choking at the end.

Fu Mingyu sat down beside her and patted her back. There was less than a fist’s distance between them.

When he reached out to pat Ruan Sixian’s back, his arm formed a circle around her.

When his palm gently landed, it felt as if he was embracing her.

But it lifted again the next second, and the feeling of being encircled disappeared, leaving an emptiness in her heart.

Every second, Ruan Sixian wanted to grasp that fleeting sense of embrace, wishing he wouldn’t lift his hand, just leave it on her back.

“What’s wrong?”

Fu Mingyu got no answer. He lowered his head to look at her, but she had completely buried her face in her knees, curled up like a fetus in the womb. “Do you want a hug?”

Ruan Sixian: “…”

Before she could decide how to respond, Fu Mingyu suddenly reached out and pulled her close, pressing her head against his chest.

“If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”

Ruan Sixian certainly had nothing to say.

She was feeling very insecure right now and wanted an embrace she could rely on unreservedly.

His embrace had just the right temperature, with a clean, pleasant scent.

Ruan Sixian greedily inhaled a couple of times, her face pressed tightly against his chest, feeling the rise and fall that tickled slightly.

The room was silent, and outside it began to rain again.

Autumn rain was even more lingering than spring rain, sparsely filtering through the leaves, making delicate, intricate sounds that intertwined with Fu Mingyu’s breathing, becoming indistinguishable.

Who knows how long it was before the rain stopped and the lights in homes all around gradually went out.

Ruan Sixian felt a few loose strands of hair being brushed against her cheek by Fu Mingyu’s breath. It tickled, so she shifted her position.

A voice suddenly came from above her head.

“Stop fidgeting. If you keep moving, I’ll have to charge interest.”

?

Ruan Sixian lifted her head immediately. “What interest?”

She straightened up to look at Fu Mingyu, and his hand naturally slid to her waist.

Fu Mingyu tilted his head and looked down at her. “For example, a kiss?”